It’s that (second) time of the year again, folks! Ann Arbor’s Restaurant Week just passed by, and when Restaurant Week opens, students (or jobless alumni like me) go flocking!

This time around, I visited Real Seafood Company for lunch and The Earle for dinner. Unfortunately, my (mediocre) photos only came out for RSC since it was too dark in the Earle for me to photograph, especially since I make it a policy to not use my camera’s flash.

I had a salad the other day, and I felt like making something other than the dressing I used in the Apple and Breaded Chicken Salad, so I thought I’d come up with the “brilliant” idea of making a miso-based dressing. Honestly, it wasn’t too bad…I guess. Separately, the dressing and the salad probably would have tasted better. So it might not be unsurprising that I had a lot of this murky dark dressing leftover.

As I was doing the dishes, I was trying to figure out what to do with all this leftover dressing. I didn’t have enough vegetables leftover for a salad, and I just couldn’t figure out what the taste and texture reminded me of. And then it hit me! I had jajang myun for the first time a few weeks ago, and I figured by adjusting the flavor a little would give me the same type of taste (if not the color). I then added glops of peanut butter to thicken the mixture and poured it all on top of a bed of rice noodles before topping it with some cooked slices of pork shoulder butt, shallots, and nori.

So I had a friend staying the night and I told her I’d make dinner for her and one of my roommates, Maggie. When I asked the visiting friend, Mikuni, what she’d like for dinner, she replied with “Asian food!” and, surprise surprise!, I made Asian (style) food.

I’ve tried these pork wraps before, and they aren’t particularly difficult except for when you’re actually combining everything together into the final piece. My previous attempt also included cooking everything all at once together, but I’ve learned my lesson…that isn’t that easy and it’s just darn difficult!

Luckily, I’ve learned from my mistakes, and here is now an easier-to-make and maybe even tastier version of the wraps from the past (hey it rhymes!…kind of)

I think salads might just be one of the easiest college meals ever. All you have to do is wash and cut (or bake, depending on what you want), and it’s relatively healthy if your dressing is made with the proper ingredients. You can also adjust the flavor to fit what you need and want, so it’s nearly 100% customizable.

In other words, make what you want and eat what you want, without the guilt that normally comes from doing either or both.

My guilt-free meal came in the form of a large salad with fresh ingredients after a few hours of grocery shopping.

This is my version of a frozen computer (because I don’t have a TV) dinner.

Unlike most of the food I have here in the blog, this wasn’t made by me (except the steamed vegetables). This is made, with love, from my parents back in California before I came back here in the beginning of September for school.

Well, the name is something I made up just now because it’s mostly sea products.

To be honest, I pride myself in my quick and easy soup noodles because…well, they’re quick and easy. The easy also applies to cleaning up after. I normally make these several times a week while changing up the ingredients, and they’re pretty healthy because of the vegetables and protein.